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LAUSD gets federal waiver

Los Angeles Unified and seven other California school districts won an unprecedented federal waiver Tuesday from the No Child Left Behind law, freeing up $150 million to educate low-income students and creating new benchmarks for gauging their success. Barbara Jones in the Daily News,

The waiver eliminates the threat of sanctions if the districts — collectively known as the California Office to Reform Education — fail to meet the requirement that all students be proficient in math and English by 2014.

It also lifts restrictions on how districts can spend federal Title I money, which amounts to $6.8 million for Long Beach Unified and $80 million for LAUSD. They’ll now have the freedom to train their own teachers, for instance, rather than having to hire independent tutors as in years past.